Well, today was damp, all day, and this evening became very windy and as we ‘squidged’ our way out to feed the sheep and alpacas, we made the decision that tomorrow they probably need to come back under cover for a while... We are already looking to next winter and working out how we can keep the animals more off the land if we are as wet again as we have been this year. The re-build of the 'lean-to' is actually going to be a godsend and our current thinking is that we may use that for the cow accommodation and then have the Cow Pad for the alpacas. They could be out on the grass if it was dry-ish but otherwise could have the run of the Pad. It would be a big enough space for them both inside and out and in leading straight out onto the 4-acre, this means we can be very flexible about how much we keep them in or not!!
We will however, need to think carefully about the lean to and its suitability for the cows, including its size. Soil Association guidelines (the most generous) state that a cow of up to 350kg needs 7 square metres of space if housed. The lean to is 22 by 3.5 metres which is 77 square metres in total. Now, not all of it may be available for the cows as currently it houses a lot of wood and equipment but even so, even if we had half of it we could, in theory, fit 5 cows in it!!! Although, not really, because the smaller the space, the 'less big' those individual 7 square meters become!!!
It's all food for thought and there are a few side issues to consider, like where will we put all that cow poo!!!!